SOLVING THE MBRRA GARBAGE PROBLEM
1.
Introduction
2.
Becoming aware of issues.
3.
The future of garbage disposal.
1. Introduction:
For
the last one year, along with the rest of the city, the residents of our
association have suffered due to the Corporation being unable to dispose the
waste generated in a scientific manner. With their backs against the wall, the
corporation has been forced into adopting burning of unsorted waste as the
chief method of waste disposal. The residents of our association have suffered
in varying degrees due to this:
1. Families
and establishments have suffered greatly, who are close to areas where burning
of waste is taking place.
2. Families
with small houses and limited land area who have been unable (or been
unwilling) to compost food and vegetable waste in their premises.
3. The
increase in the population of rats in MBRRA premises due to food waste being
dumped in the open. (Affects everyone)
4. The
blockage of our drainage system due to the dumping of raw waste and burnt waste
in them. (Affects everyone)
5. The
deterioration of the general air quality due to the burning taking place.
(Affects everyone)
6. The
uncertainty over how to dispose waste other than food and vegetable waste.
(Affects everyone)
7. The
uncertainty over how to dispose toxic waste such as batteries, Cfl bulbs, tube
lights, chemicals etc. (Affects everyone)
2. Becoming aware of
issues:
· There are two types of waste: a) Food and vegetable waste which must be dealt with on a daily basis. b) Other wastes that can be sorted and stored for some time.
· Food and vegetable waste under the present circumstances should be processed by individual households making use of biogas plants / composting facilities. Food and vegetable waste should not be thrown in the open, as that will lead to the increase in the population of rats. It is also undesirable to burn food waste. Attempt should be made to convert food and vegetable waste into high quality fertilizer which can be used for local agriculture or sold to agriculturists. It is undesirable to include residue of burnt plastic in this mix.
· Leaf waste is being normally collected by corporation workers and the same is burnt. Burning of leaf waste will cause pollution of the air, so a better approach is to put the waste in larger compounds, where it will compost naturally. Composting can be speeded up by putting leaf litter in suitably dug pits.
· Global Warming: To reduce Global Warming, it has been recommended that countries like India reduce the amount of soot sent up in the air – the large scale burning that takes place in India is an important health and environmental issue.
· Waste, other than food and vegetable waste are of the following types. 1) Waste that can be collected and readily sold 2) waste consisting mostly of wood 3) plastic covers 4) Glass 5) miscellaneous waste 6) Toxic waste.
· Waste that can be collected and sold readily are newspaper and cardboard waste; metals, such as aluminium, steel, and copper; plastic milk covers, plastic used in products such as buckets, etc. It may be noted that shredded white paper with black print can also be sorted and sold.
· Waste consisting mostly of wood can be sorted and used as firewood. (Since a lot of modern products mix wood with plastic and adhesives, we may have to take some care in burning these products. The disposal of the ash produced also raises some questions).
· Plastic covers form the single most difficult item to deal with. Plastic does not biodegrade, so it will be there in the environment for a long time. It is light, so it can fly around, blighting the landscape. It can choke drains, and hold water, in which mosquitoes can breed. While plastic can be stored, plastic contaminated with food waste will probably be difficult to store inside the house. (Since plastic is highly inflammable we have to be careful not to store a large amount of it in an enclosed area). Plastic when it is burnt produces toxic fumes, so it has to be burnt in a safe manner.
· Glass and other ceramics can be stored indefinitely. They can readily be used as filler material in construction sites. Glass should not be deliberately broken and mixed with other waste. It is undesirable to attempt to burn glass along with other waste.
· Miscellaneous waste would be items like cloth waste, dirty paper, paper laminated with plastic, bags, footwear etc. Cloth waste and dirty paper are biodegradable (it is good to keep in mind that colours other than black colour could make the product somewhat toxic). Paper laminated with plastic - increasingly used in our society - can create all the problems that plain plastic covers can create. In general these products can also be disposed by burning. The increasing uncertainty in knowing what forms of gasses are released when these items are burnt, as well as question marks relating to disposal of the ash, would make it desirable that if any burning is done, it is done by professionals.
· Sanitary pads used by women and children may need to be burnt in individual houses, as these products seem to contain plastics and other items that are not readily biodegradable. Evidently we need to reduce the use of these products. Traditional sanitary practices, especially where children are concerned may be more environmentally friendly.
· Toxic waste such as batteries, cfl lamps, light tubes, mercury thermometers, various chemicals, etc. are best handled by professionals. Unused medicines can probably be handed over to facilities created by the Indian Medical Association. Temporarily it is best that we store these products in our homes till we find suitable ways of disposing them.
· The successful handling of waste is closely related to the principles of sustainability - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. One example of this would be to avoid the use of disposable paper cups and plates to serve food.
3. The future of garbage disposal.
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·
Just as in the human
body there are complex systems that process and eliminate waste, we have to
take equal care in handling and disposing waste in our environment. Careless
disposal of waste can very seriously impact our health in an adverse manner,
such as lead in the environment that will reduce the intelligence of our
children, polluted air and water can lead to disease of various kinds like
respiratory diseases and cancer.
·
In countries like USA
and also India, the general practice has been to remove unsorted waste from the
city using trucks and dumping the waste in remote open areas. With increasing
crowding of cities and scarcity of open places to dump waste this method does
not appear to be viable any more. There is also the ever present danger of pollution
of the ground water when such methods are adopted.
· Increasingly one fears that such methods will become prohibitively expensive with the increasing price of diesel, since garbage has to be transported by truck from one place to another. We will eventually have to pay close attention to the economics of the different methods of garbage disposal. Methods which can be converted into viable business models have better chance of success.
· Under the circumstances we find ourselves in (in Thiruvananthapuram) one possible strategy is to manage food and vegetable waste in individual homes while other wastes are sorted and collected for a month in households and transported to suitable waste collection centres set up by the corporation, either by corporation trucks or by transport arranged by individual housing societies. If this method is employed it will also become viable to set up waste to electricity generation plants.
· If it is not possible to set up such waste collection centres the only other option is to resort to wide-scale burning of sorted waste. This will require setting up of suitable facilities in resident’s associations to burn waste in an efficient manner. This will still leave a question mark over how to dispose the burnt waste, which could be at least partly toxic. This method should be adopted only as a last resort.
· Centres to collect toxic waste such as batteries, cfl bulbs, tubelights, etc. need however to be set up on an urgent basis.
· There is also an urgent need to employ qualified scientists, suitably equipped, to study and monitor the different ways of waste disposal.
· At the MBRRA level it may be desirable to hire a person to coordinate the waste disposal activities. If waste disposal activities do not engage the person fully, he can also be assigned to help residents in other ways.
· Increasingly one fears that such methods will become prohibitively expensive with the increasing price of diesel, since garbage has to be transported by truck from one place to another. We will eventually have to pay close attention to the economics of the different methods of garbage disposal. Methods which can be converted into viable business models have better chance of success.
· Under the circumstances we find ourselves in (in Thiruvananthapuram) one possible strategy is to manage food and vegetable waste in individual homes while other wastes are sorted and collected for a month in households and transported to suitable waste collection centres set up by the corporation, either by corporation trucks or by transport arranged by individual housing societies. If this method is employed it will also become viable to set up waste to electricity generation plants.
· If it is not possible to set up such waste collection centres the only other option is to resort to wide-scale burning of sorted waste. This will require setting up of suitable facilities in resident’s associations to burn waste in an efficient manner. This will still leave a question mark over how to dispose the burnt waste, which could be at least partly toxic. This method should be adopted only as a last resort.
· Centres to collect toxic waste such as batteries, cfl bulbs, tubelights, etc. need however to be set up on an urgent basis.
· There is also an urgent need to employ qualified scientists, suitably equipped, to study and monitor the different ways of waste disposal.
· At the MBRRA level it may be desirable to hire a person to coordinate the waste disposal activities. If waste disposal activities do not engage the person fully, he can also be assigned to help residents in other ways.
A
preliminary study prepared by I. Selvaraj, Thiruvananthapuram.
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The Air That Kills in India:
The thick haze of outdoor air pollution common in India today is the nation’s fifth-largest killer, after high blood pressure, indoor air pollution (mainly from cookfires), smoking and poor nutrition, according to a new analysis presented in New Delhi by the Boston-based Health Effects Institute. In 2010, outdoor air pollution contributed to over 620,000 premature deaths in India, up from 100,000 in 2000.
‘’It’s not just breathing bad air,’’ said Aaron Cohen, the principal epidemiologist at the institute. “A host of diseases is related to air pollution, such as cardiovascular diseases that lead to heart attacks and strokes, respiratory infections and lung cancer.”
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Unsorted garbage being burnt - plastic, fluorescent tubes
containing mercury and whatnot.
containing mercury and whatnot.
In Trivandrum we have our own brand of this problem, with garbage disposal in disarray and a frenzy of garbage burning going on without any attempt to segregate the garbage. The government and the public are equally unaware of the consequences. A scene from the front of my house which adjoins the Government Higher Secondary School for Girls, Mathrubhumi Road, Vanchioor (where children from poorer families study). The school authorities have sent a number of representations, as the fumes and the stench make it difficult on the teachers and the students; the authorities are still to respond.
Selvaraj
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